


Sun Shadow Theatre

by WaltzQueen



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Gossip, One Thousand Words, Spirit World (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28882308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaltzQueen/pseuds/WaltzQueen
Summary: The sun loves stories and this is a grand one.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Sun Shadow Theatre

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Guidance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24483991) by [jovialJuggernaut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jovialJuggernaut/pseuds/jovialJuggernaut). 



> I encourage you to have the voice of a valley girl in your head when you read Agni's lines.

So, Hei Bai saw Jin Lu and told Old Iron who complained to Baboon who told Wan Shi Tong's foxes who told Wan Shi Tong who mentioned it to Camel who told Rat. Rat knew that Camel's not a liar but _is_ gullible and verified with Wan Shi Tong who also didn't trust the hearsay, so they went to ask Oma, who knew all the gossip thanks to Shu. And Shu had heard from La and from Tui's replacement, Yue, that it was true. Which wasn't really going to prove much, Yue was still very human, given how young and fresh she was to the sky. But when Rat's cousin Mouse said that Bear himself had heard from the Avatar themselves that it was real, and what's more, had seen it, Rat started giving the rumors more credit. And then Wan Shi Tong complained to Rat that the Avatar had damaged his library with Jin Lu's favored human, who was marked with Jin Lu's blessing . The rumors began to form a series of events that formed stories. And it was a story- no, it was a Story. And, even better, it was one worth telling.

  
So Rat told Agni that Camel told them what Hei Bai and Bear and Wan Shi Tong had seen, because the Sun Spirit loved Stories.

Agni looked down on the static waves of mountains and the slowly inching lines of change that crept across them. So many things thrived under her light that she was loath to leave them at the end of each day. Surely Mother of Faces felt the same when Koh left their home. And although she had no children of her body, she had favored humans she could bless and play minder to, though distantly. Thousands of thousands of little flashes of fire lived on the land she passed over, each one unique and endlessly entertaining. Some flash fires burnt themselves out, some sparked new little flames of their own. All moved on and on, pushing forward the wheel of time with flickers of life. While humanity as a whole was interesting, even Spirits grew bored with monotony and certain individuals were more monotonous than others. It is thus that the Royal Family of the Fire Nation fell out of Agni's attention and was supplanted by a group of traveling thespians.

Oh, the Royal Family had plenty of drama at first, but then for generations all they did was sit in the Caldera endlessly and talk about grain yields this and law that. They took care of most of the humans she had gifted with her flames, so Agni kept them in her good graces. But did the Royal Fire Family regularly meet new people every week? Did they practice new stories and sing new songs? Fan Mei learned a new play every month, going from novice to adept in time to amaze the next town they came to on their circuit of the ever shrinking Earth Kingdom borders. Fan Hu and Song turned sheets of cloth and worn boards into mimicries of places they have never seen for people who will also never see them. And then Mei began dallying with other humans, but the wrong kind of humans because they were female, and her family forced her away. And they had no star for their plays and had to relent and allow her back in the caravan. But Fan Mei had picked up a new occupation in one of the towns on their route and had been adopted into a miller's family. And the Fan thespians had to convince her to come back when she wanted to stay with the Jia millers who were quietly intending to sell her to a traveling circus that was fast approaching. And this was just within the last year! You just didn't get entertainment like this from the royal family anymore. 

Or at least, so Agni thought until Rat came one day as she peered down at the Earth Kingdom family. "Agni, have you had a look at the Fire Nation's royal family lately?" 

"Why, have they finally done something interesting, again?" Clever Rat would know if anything worthwhile happened.

Delighted, Rat looked at the curious Sun. Proving that people, human or not, will always just be people, Rat proclaimed, "Agni, I have heard some wild shit."

"They've been doing what?"

"I did notice less airbenders, but I thought that was Mundi taking back her gifts, honestly."

"A child? And his own child, too? How did everyone react?"

"So, that's what happened to Tui. I hadn't been able to visit for a while, you know how jealous La gets. I'll have to meet this 'Yue', sometime. Before La gets possesive."

"I'm sure that fortune teller was having fun. Good for Suan Ming to talk to someone directly for once. Socialization is good for him."

"Aw, the water tribe boy borrows the prince's Spark? Maybe I should have Blessed him, after all. Watertribe or no."

"He brought it back to the Spirit Realm? After catgators trashed it? He knows the catgators will swarm his servants once they catch wind of the library's return, right?"

"I do hope Jin Lu recovers, I simply must hear their side of things once this is all done."

On Rat went and on Agni listened as the days passed. As Rat came to the end of the tale Agni was enraptured. The Sun Spirit hardly even noticed the eclipse that came and went. She had been missing out on so much the one time she decided to look away from the Royal family. Granted it had been for a little while, for a century was not very long for a spirit of her age or importance, but still. When a burst of light erupted on the mortal plane and weaker spirits fled, Agni jumped at the chance for a front row seat to the main event. She had a story now and she would see its very end, herself.

**Author's Note:**

> 1 i had to look up Chinese naming conventions for the thespian family and wow the naming system traditionally is so complicated. given that they're not even really characters i just gave up and picked nice sounds over meaning.
> 
> 2 there is no mentioned wind spirit in canon. water gets la, agni's in the sun, oma and shu are earth bending patron spirits, but the knowledge about air bending was presumably lost with the air nomads. So, My City Now, the air patron is Mundi.


End file.
